Party Picks Gorbachev as Nominee for President at People’s Congress

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Monday won the nomination of the ruling Communist Party for election to a full five-year term as president when the country’s new national assembly meets this week.

The party’s policy-making Central Committee, in nominating Gorbachev, also endorsed the major tenets of the platform that he will present to the Congress of People’s Deputies, strengthening and deepening the political and economic reforms undertaken in the last four years under his leadership.

Election as president under constitutional changes adopted last December will greatly enhance Gorbachev’s power, and for this reason participants in the broad Soviet democratic movement have declared their intention to nominate a candidate to oppose Gorbachev and thus force him to defend his policies and point of view.

Although conservative members of the Central Committee continued their attack on Gorbachev’s policies at the special, daylong meeting, his supporters considered the committee’s approval of the speech that he will deliver to the congress later this week as a significant victory.

Gorbachev, 58, intends to reaffirm his commitment to fundamental reforms, one participant in the meeting said later, despite the continuing criticism, largely from conservatives.

Gorbachev’s speech to the closed-door session of the 251-member of Central Committee meeting was not disclosed, but participants in the meeting said that he had vowed to pursue perestroika, or restructuring.

Thirty-four people, an unusually large number, spoke at the meeting, according to the official Tass news agency, but details of their speeches will be available only later.

Under the constitutional changes adopted late last year, Gorbachev and future Soviet leaders will have far broader powers in a basic diplomatic concept than before.

The new executive president, likely to be Gorbachev, will head the Supreme Soviet, the country’s standing legislature.

The president will oversee legislation and major economic and social programs. He will articulate the key issues of foreign policy, defense and natural security. And he will head the country’s defense council.